A sell-out crowd of 500 people cheered wildly as 17 outstanding winners were crowned at ROCCO 2019 on Friday 15th November at the Normandy Hotel Renfrew. Renfrewshire’s largest black-tie business event, now in its 16th year welcomed PAISLEY.IS as returning main sponsor. Chamber President Tom Johnston outlined the chamber’s achievements in the last 12 months and the audience were greeted by St Columba’s School Pipe Band.
Cabinet Secretary for Finance Derek Mackay MSP spoke as a special guest and emphasised the economic success and future investments coming to the area, highlighting the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District with enabling works underway close to Glasgow Airport.
Renfrewshire Council Chief Executive Sandra Black gave the principal sponsor address and profiled the new Economic Strategy for Renfrewshire 2020-2030 featuring investment and opportunities in the area with increased job growth, new house building and Renfrewshire as a great place to live and work. The audience were encouraged to download the strategy on specially designed Paisley.is memory sticks given to every guest.
The ROCCO raffle raised an outstanding £10,000 with an individual pledge of £1500 from intu Braehead for local charities and good causes with main beneficiaries Accord Hospice and STAR Project’s “Chin-Up” initiative for the young men of Shortroods.
The audience were held spell-bound by the enchanting performances of Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists: Soprano Charlie Drummond, Scottish baritone Arthur Bruce and pianist Michael Papadopoulos. Their talent was met with thunderous applause as the audience showed their appreciation. Rocco favourite Fred MacAulay hosted and was enthralled by all three performers. ROCCO’s twitter wall and social media generated a reach of 1.8 million impressions on twitter and reached 385,000 accounts with #2019Rocco trending on the night..
Commenting on the Awards, Chamber chief executive Bob Grant said “What a night! ROCCO 2019 was a record breaker with over 115 entries for this year’s awards. Raising £10,000 for our two chamber charities is tremendous and thank you to all who donated a raffle prize.
A huge thank you to all our sponsors with a heartfelt congratulations to all our shortlisted companies and 17 worthy winners.
Special thanks to our Main Sponsor Paisley.is retuning for a second year. Driving the renewed vigour in our visitor economy and attracting global interest in Paisley & Renfrewshire. The profile of The ROCCO’s continues to grow with a reach of 1.8 million impressions on twitter and reaching 385,000 accounts with #2019Rocco. It reflects the outstanding companies we have in Renfrewshire.
You can view all images on our Facebook page and comments on #2019Rocco. I encourage all Rocco winners to utilise their win across their PR channels. Thank you to the entire Chamber team for all their work before and on the night to ensure our 500 guests had a great time. Special thanks to principle sponsor Paisley.is, Diageo who supplied our drinks reception, Cameron Presentations & Gap TV for all the AV, Mark from Flash Bang Booth, The Printbrokers for the program, Gary from NS Design for the excellent social media coverage and the Normandy Hotel for the superb meal and service. Thanks also to St Columba’s School Pipe Band who welcomed guests in such style.
Finally, thank you to Scottish Opera. It was a privilege to watch performances from three 2019/20 Emerging Artists: Soprano Charlie Drummond, Scottish baritone Arthur Bruce and repetiteur Michael Papadopoulos. Planning for Rocco 2020 is already underway, and we hope to see you enter and attend next year.”
